Parental Differences
by Crowlows19
Summary: This SAS soldier is in way over his head.
1. Parental Differences

Hey everyone! So here's a byproduct of my homework avoidance. It's not the most original idea in the world but it was fun. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.**

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In hindsight he supposed the fight was an obvious outcome to the conversation he'd attempted to have with the kid. It was hard knowing how the boy would react to anything as he was closed off to the world in general. The fifteen-year-old MI6 agent was hard pressed to trust anyone and his current bouncing around from place to place did little to help.

Wolf could remember clearly when MI6 had approached him with this problem. They'd told him that with Cub's old guardian gone for the time being they needed him in a home with someone both parties could trust. Not that Cub would trust anyone, most of all him.

The kid had shown up a week later covered in bruises and cuts, one arm in a sling. Having grown up as an older brother Wolf wasn't surprised when his protective instincts kicked in on the sight of the boy. He knew he owed the kid for saving his career, even if it had involved kicking his arse out of a plane. Not that he hadn't somewhat deserved it. Besides, Blunt had told him that Cub's old guardian would be back by the time his Unit was ready to go back into the field.

So Wolf had agreed and Cub had been there for little more than a month. Eagle had been ecstatic to see the kid again. Cub had still been asleep when K-Unit had come to visit and Eagle's choice of greeting was to bust into the kid's room and flip the mattress to send Cub to the floor. He'd received a sharp kick in the stomach from Cub and a smack upside the head from Wolf.

Snake had instantly inquired about the boy's health as the bruises still had yet to heal. Cub refused point blank to say anything answering every question with, "Can't tell you. Classified." It was frustrating to say the least.

The most surprising thing was learning that Fox had worked with Cub on a mission. However, both couldn't say anything about it except that it had happened in Australia.

Wolf had, on several occasions, tried to tell Cub that as his guardian he had a right to know and the classified accuse wasn't going to work on him. Cub steadfastly refused to say anything remotely substantial and after awhile Wolf had stopped asking.

He figured that if Cub wanted to talk he would eventually. Not to mention he'd run out of patience with the cryptic answers and words behind words. Wolf had always hated talking to anyone from MI6; he found it mentally exhausting and hated that Cub had picked up the habit.

After all but giving up on getting any information out of the kid a couple of weeks passed by rather smoothly. They'd settled into a routine and even he had to admit that the kid wasn't too bad. Then all hell broke loose.

St. Dominic's called about an unfilled prescription of pain medication. Curious and hoping for a real answer Wolf asked what it was for. He'd been shocked to hear it was for Cub's gunshot wound to the chest. He'd been expecting something about appendicitis which, obviously, Cub had never even had.

When Cub came home from school that day Wolf had confronted him. The ensuing fight had been loud with anger on both their parts. Cub had shown more emotion than Wolf had ever seen out of him. He no longer looked like the tired adult with too much on his plate, now he looked a seriously upset teenager. It was a breakthrough of sorts but Wolf wouldn't be able to appreciate it until much later.

"What's the big deal?" Cub said exasperated. "I'm fine!"

"No, you're not fine," Wolf snapped at him. "You were shot in the heart!"

"Above the heart," Cub automatically corrected.

"Close enough!" Wolf returned.

"I still don't get why you're freaking. Jack never did anything," Cub said. Wolf's jaw clenched at the mention of Cub's old guardian. He'd only spoken to her once over the phone but it was clear that she genuinely cared for Cub. Despite this, the man couldn't help but be furious over her lack of concern regarding the bullet wound.

"That's the whole problem Cub. You can't just do nothing with a wound like that."

"But I'm fine," Cub said for probably the millionth time. The heated discussion turned into a full out fight with the frustration and tension that had been between them in the last month or so finally thrown out into the open. Trying to explain to Cub where his old guardian had gone wrong with his care was like trying to explain something to a brick wall, or Eagle.

Cub was hard headed, like Wolf, a fact Eagle never missed a chance to tease them about, and in his eyes Jack hadn't done anything wrong. Cub was defensive of Jack simply because he felt the American was the only family he had left. So Wolf shouldn't have been surprised when his criticisms of Jack sent Cub into a flying rage that once started had little to do with the present conversation. He also shouldn't have been surprised that when told to go to his room Cub had taken the opportunity to leave through his bedroom window.

Wolf had figured the boy would simply come back once he'd calmed down and after waiting till almost midnight he went to bed. When Cub still wasn't back the next morning he called his mobile only to get voice mail. By that afternoon, he was picking up his car keys to go look for the boy, faintly worried.

As he left the small house he wondered, not for the first time, just what he'd gotten himself into.

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Hope you enjoyed! Review!


	2. Parental Concern

Okay guys, so, this is how it's gonna go. I originally written three one shots on Wolf's guardianship of Alex and I decided to just post them all in the same story. Since pretty much everyone who reviewed said this would make a good full length story I'm gonna run with it. I guess you could consider this a preview of sorts. Anyway it might take a little while as I'm in the process of two other AR fics as well as THe Woes of Brookland. Let me know what you think of this.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.**

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**_Parental Concern_**

Cub was the type of kid who never wanted to ask for help, even if he desperately needed it, because he didn't think he'd get it or he thought that whatever was wrong wasn't important enough to ask about. Wolf had learned that over the course of his six month long guardianship of the boy. Cub didn't like to talk about himself, his past, or his job simply because it was near impossible for the boy to trust anyone.

A few months ago when they'd had their first major fight, Cub had taken off and when he wasn't back by the next afternoon Wolf had gone to look for him. It had taken both him and K-Unit two days to find him and by that time Wolf was beyond frustrated. Cub had holed up in his old home in Chelsea which had been stripped clean some weeks prior. Snake had thought that Cub would go there but they'd had no idea where the place even was. In the end, Fox had used his MI6 connections to get the address.

Wolf had gone to the house by himself and found Cub sleeping on the floor in what was his room. After waking the kid and catching him from taking off again Wolf took him first to the hospital and then home. When they'd reached St. Dominic's Cub had refused to get out of the car and after a strict warning that if he moved Wolf would handcuff to the steering wheel, the man went in by himself to fill the pain medication prescription.

They never really talked about the fight; Wolf felt uncomfortable about it and Cub just didn't talk about anything. Cub took his pain meds and went to his check ups like he was supposed to and that was that.

Wolf left several times for assignments with the SAS but so far hadn't been gone for more than a week. His unit had been bumped up in the ranks and they were now practically choosing their assignments. None of them wanted to back to Iraq and none wanted those three-month-long assignments were you basically sat on your arse and twiddled your thumbs while watching the desert.

Cub had also been sent away a few times on missions. Wolf was never been told what they were about probably because MI6 knew he'd raise hell about them. Some were simple two-day assignments and some the kid would be gone for weeks only to come back beat up and exhausted. He rarely talked about what happened unless it some random blurted out detail that had nothing to do with the conversation they were having.

Eagle, who was a master at inane chatter, was the first to notice that Cub would say random things that didn't fit with what was going on around him. It was like the boy simply couldn't keep a normal conversation anymore; his mind was just too jumpy.

After his last mission Cub had come back almost dead quite. He'd been quite before but now he was like a zombie and Wolf had no idea what to do about it. The boy would get up in the morning, go to school, come home, and shut himself in his room. Their attempts to draw him out failed and by week's end he was having nightmares.

Wolf hadn't realized that nightmares could be so violent but Cub's had him thrashing and screaming in his sleep. Several nights in a row Wolf busted into the kid's room, turned on the light, and held him down before either the nightmare ended or Cub woke up. About a week later the nightmares actually started to make the boy sick and several times Wolf caught him leaning over the toilet bowl puking his guts out. By that weekend Wolf decided that something needed to be done whether Cub liked it or not. As predicted Cub resisted.

"I'm fine," he insisted.

"No, you're not," Wolf almost growled feeling his patience leave him. "You're all messed up." Cub stabbed at the scrambled egg on his plate with a bit more force than necessary, a dark look on his face.

"I'm fine," he said again and Wolf heaved a frustrated sigh.

"If you say that again, I'll put duct tape over your mouth," he warned and Cub rolled his eyes.

"But-" he started.

"I don't want to hear it Cub, you're going," Wolf told him.

"I don't want to go to a shrink," the boy almost whined.

"Who does?" Wolf shot back. "You need to talk to someone and since you won't talk to me you're gonna talk to this guy." Cub proceed to go into an almost-pout that six months ago would never have happened. "Cub, it's either the MI6 shrink or the psychiatric ward. It's your choice." Cub's face took an expression of disbelieving horror at the ultimatum.

"You wouldn't," he said.

"I would," Wolf assured him.

"That's not fair!" Cub exclaimed.

"Tough," Wolf told him. "You need help whether you think you do or not. These nightmares aren't healthy Cub. Look at you, you're exhausted!"

"I'm-"

"For the last time, no, you're not fine and, yes, you're going," Wolf snapped at him his tone conveying that the conversation was over. Cub responded by pushing his plate away with a clatter, leaving the table, and slamming his door when he got his room.

Wolf rolled his eyes at the blatantly teenage response and three hours later he barged into the room to make sure Cub was ready to go. Cub told his guardian that he could get there by himself but Wolf wanted to make sure he actually went instead of running off. The appointment with Dr. Grevin lasted two hours and when Cub came out Wolf could tell he was mentally exhausted. On the ride home Wolf asked how it went.

"It was okay," Cub said tiredly.

"You feeling okay?" he asked still concerned about whatever it was that plagued the boy.

"I'm fine," Cub mumbled.

"You know, I'm really starting to hate that statement," Wolf said annoyed that those two words come out of Cub's mouth every other sentence.

"Yeah, me too," Cub replied with a small smile. "It makes for a boring conversation."

"You're one weird kid," Wolf said with his own smile. Cub shrugged.

"Keeps it interesting," he said and Wolf ruffled the kid's hair. The rest of the ride was spent in a comfortable silence.


	3. Parental Privileges

And here's the third part. For this one you need to remember that Wolf knows very little about Alex's missions. This'll be the last part of this until I get the real story up so enjoy and review.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider.**

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**_Parental Privileges_**

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because, why?"

"What part of 'no' don't you understand?" Wolf said a little harshly. Honestly, how many times would he have to repeat himself?

"But Wolf," Cub whined.

"No," he said his tone telling the boy it was not a good idea to continue pestering him about it.

"I'll only have it for a few hours," Cub persisted but sighed in surrender when Wolf leveled a glare at him. "Fine," he said and went to his room. Wolf just shook his head at the seventeen-year-old. He knew he had about an hour before Cub started up again and he was considering just saying yes to get the boy to shut up.

Cub had been there for a little more than two years now and Wolf felt that all things considered it had gone rather smoothly. Despite the boy's incessant need to say, "Classified," Cub was generally more open with K-Unit as a whole. As his comfort levels grew the teen spy became more 'teen' than 'spy' while at home.

Jack was back in America for good so Wolf had been granted permanent custody of Cub. Cub had been sad to see her go but she had no longer been able to care for in any way, shape, or form and by that time Cub was pretty stable. The boy still saw the MI6 shrink and Wolf figured it had helped as the nightmares had more or less subsided. There'd only been one relapse after a nasty mission involving a cult which had ended up effecting Cub not only in his sleep but during waking hours as well. They'd had to sedate him for two days before he snapped himself out of it.

Wolf had demanded MI6 leave the boy alone and after some arguing from both him and Jones, Blunt had relented. That had been six months ago and so far MI6 had kept their word. Wolf had instructed Cub to accept no missions from them no matter what he was told and K-Unit had helped him drill it into the boy's head that the world wasn't going to spontaneously end just because he wasn't spying. It also helped that the shrink had said that another mission to soon could send Cub into a permanent relapse.

With the lack of missions Cub was able to catch up in school and re-establish the friendships he'd lost. As K-Unit was over constantly they'd all met some of Cub's closest friends and Eagle enjoyed chasing them out of the house with his annoying antics. When Cub brought home his girlfriend they'd teased him about it for a week straight. The Unit had no reservations where Cub's friends were concerned. When one of them had called once to talk to Cub both Eagle and Fox had interrogated the poor kid for half an hour before finally handing over the phone.

Cub was also driving, a fact Wolf had mixed feelings about. Cub was probably the most cautious and responsible teenage driver on the road and Wolf knew he was good but he still felt wary. Snake had told him that it was natural; Fox said he was wary about everything Cub-related, why should this be any different; Eagle told him to stop being so parental and hand the boy the keys before he decided it would be easier to just steal a car. It didn't help that Wolf had once seen Cub in a high speed chase and he couldn't help but think about that destroyed car every time Cub took his car. So to give his rattled nerves a night off he'd told the boy he couldn't take the car that night. He hadn't been able to come up with a solid excuse by the time Cub asked though. Sure enough an hour later Cub was at it again.

"C'mon Wolf, I'm not gonna wreck it," he said.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because."

"That's not a reason," Cub told him arms crossed. "Are you even going out tonight?"

"Not planning to, no," Wolf replied starting to enjoy Cub's growing annoyance.

"So you're only saying 'no' because you can?" Cub asked exasperated.

"Pretty much, yeah," Wolf said with an amused smile. "It's my right as your guardian."

"But I have a date," Cub tried.

"Take the tube," Wolf said his attention back on the football game he was watching.

"That's lame," Cub mumbled.

"Tough," Wolf replied. Cub left an hour later in a touchy mood which Snake and Fox instantly noticed as they passed him at the front door.

"What's up with Cub?" Fox asked.

"Told him to the tube," Wolf replied.

"For a date?" Snake asked.

"Yup," Wolf said his eyes never straying form the TV.

"Why?" Snake asked him but Fox answered before Wolf could even open his mouth.

"It's a parental privilege," he said and Snake rolled his eyes. Eagle arrived about a minute later and the four of them watched random television programs for the rest of the night. Snake and Fox left around eleven but by the time eleven-thirty rolled around Eagle still had yet to make a move to leave.

"Exactly how long are you planning on staying here?" Wolf asked him.

"Why? Don't you love me?" Eagle quipped and then sighed when Wolf leveled a glare at him. "Fine, I'm waiting for Cub."

"Um, why?" Wolf asked a little confused. Eagle never waited for Cub; said he moved slower than his ninety-year-old grandmother.

"Oh, he has my car."


End file.
